FERC-717 renewal supporting statement

OMB Control No. 1902-0173 (FERC-717)

Docket Nos. IC23-14-000

Supporting Statement for

FERC-717 (Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) requests that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the renewal of FERC-717 (Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities).

1. CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MAKE THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION NECESSARY

This collection of information pertains to a requirement that Transmission Providers¹ provide certain information regarding their transmission operations on an Open Access Same-Time Information System (OASIS). This requirement was established because the Commission has determined that Transmission Customers² must have simultaneous access to the same information available to the Transmission Provider in order to receive nondiscriminatory transmission services in accordance with section 205 of the Federal Power Act.³

Regulations at 18 CFR Part 37 require Transmission Providers to operate an OASIS either individually or jointly with other Transmission Providers. These regulations also provide that a Transmission Provider may delegate this responsibility to a Responsible Party⁴ such as another Transmission Provider, an Independent System Operator, a Regional Transmission Group, or a Regional Reliability Council.

The information that must be posted at OASIS sites is listed at 18 CFR 37.6. The required postings include business practices, communication protocols, transfer capacity, transmission service products, and prices.

The regulations at 18 CFR Part 37 are supplemented by industry-wide Business Practice Standards and Communication Protocols that are incorporated by reference at 18 CFR 38.1. These standards help the industry achieve increased levels of efficiency, and build on the Commission’s work in preventing undue discrimination and preference in transmission service (in Order Nos. 890, 890-A, 890-B and 890-C). The standards include six OASIS- related standards that the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) modified in response to directives and guidance provided in Order Nos. 676-E, 676-H, and 890.⁵

In addition, in Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ) Version 003.2, NAESB developed two suites of standards in coordination with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). These two NAESB suites of standards establish: (1) NAESB Electric Industry Registry (EIR) business practice standards that replace the NERC Transmission System Information Networks (TSIN) as the tool to be used by wholesale electric markets to conduct electronic transactions via electronic tagging (e-Tags); and (2) Modeling Business Practice Standards to support and complement NERC’s proposed retirement of its “MOD A” Reliability Standards. NAESB also adopted revisions to NAESB standards that need to match up with NERC’s Interchange Scheduling and Coordination Reliability Standards.

The WEQ Version 003.2 Standards also include other changes that were made to support consistency with NERC Reliability Standards. NAESB made these changes as a result of continuing coordination with NERC regarding dynamic tagging and pseudo-ties, and the finalization of the transition of the industry registry tool from NERC to NAESB. NAESB also made additional changes to seven suites of the WEQ Business Practices to ensure the standards accurately reflect revisions to the NERC Reliability Standards. In addition, NAESB made changes to support market operator functionalities to support the full use of the market operator as a separate role within the EIR and on e-Tags.

2. HOW, BY WHOM, AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE THE INFORMATION IS TO BE USED AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT COLLECTING THE INFORMATION

FERC-717 requires Transmission Providers to operate in compliance with the WEQ Version 003.2 business practice standards and with relevant Commission regulations.

The regulation at 18 CFR 37.5(a) requires Transmission Providers to establish OASIS sites to provide Transmission Customers with equal and timely access to information about transmission and ancillary services provided in the tariffs. This requirement was established because the Commission has determined that transmission customers must have simultaneous access to the same information available to the Transmission Provider in order to achieve nondiscriminatory transmission services.

The Commission determined that standardization of business practices and communication processes benefits the electric industry by providing uniform methods for public utilities to conduct business with different transmission providers. Many participants in electric markets conduct business transactions involving a number of different Transmission Providers. Establishing a uniform set of procedures and communication protocols increases the efficiency of such transactions.

The information required to be posted at OASIS sites is listed at 18 CFR 37.6 and in the provisions incorporated by reference at 18 CFR 38.1. Under 18 CFR 37.6(a), the information posted on the OASIS must be in such detail and the OASIS must have such capabilities as to allow Transmission Customers to:

1. Make requests for transmission services offered by Transmission Providers, Resellers and other providers of ancillary services, request the designation of a network resource, and request the termination of the designation of a network resource;

2. View and download in standard formats, using standard protocols, information regarding the transmission system necessary to enable prudent business decision making;

3. Post, view, upload and download information regarding available products and desired services;

4. Clearly identify the degree to which transmission service requests or schedules were denied or interrupted;

5. Obtain access, in electronic format, to information to support available transmission capability calculations and historical transmission service requests and schedules for various audit purposes; and

6. Make file transfers and automated computer-to-computer file transfers and queries as defined by the Standards and Communications Protocols Document.

Subsection (b) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires that the Transmission Provider’s available transfer capability (ATC) and the total transfer capability (TTC) be calculated and posted for each Posted Path (i.e., any control area to control area interconnection; any path for which service is denied, curtailed or interrupted for more than 24 hours in the past 12 months; and any path for which a customer requests to have ATC or TTC posted.

Subsection (c) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires that the Transmission Providers post prices and a summary of the terms and conditions associated with all transmission products offered to Transmission Customers.

Subsection (d) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires posting of any ancillary service and its price.

With some exceptions, subsection (e) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires posting of all requests for transmission and ancillary service offered by Transmission Providers under the pro forma tariff.⁶ The Transmission Provider must post all requests for transmission service, for ancillary service, and for the designation or termination of a network resource comparably.

Subsection (f) of 18 CFR 37.6 provides that information on transmission service schedules must be recorded by the entity scheduling the transmission service and must be available on the OASIS for download. Transmission service schedules must be posted no later than seven calendar days from the start of the transmission service.

Subsection (g) of 18 CFR 37.6 includes various types of requirements. For example, the Responsible Party must post transmission-related communications such as want ads, and must post other transmission-related communications in conformance with instructions provided by the third party on whose behalf the communication is posted.

Subsection (h) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires the Responsible Party to post, on a quarterly basis, information summarizing the time to complete transmission service request studies, including the Responsible Party's processing of transmission service request system impact studies and facilities studies.

Subsection (i) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires the Responsible Party to post data each month listing, by path or flowgate, the number of transmission service requests that have been accepted and the number of transmission service requests that have been denied during the prior month. This posting must distinguish between the length of the service request (e.g., short-term or long-term requests) and between the type of service requested (e.g., firm point-to-point, non-firm point-to-point or network service).

Subsection (j) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires the Transmission Provider to allow the posting on OASIS of any third party offer to relieve a specified congested transmission facility; and requires the Transmission Provide to post on OASIS (i) its monthly average cost of planning and reliability redispatch, for which it invoices customers, at each internal transmission facility or interface over which it provides redispatch service and (ii) a high and low redispatch cost for the month for each of these same transmission facilities. The Transmission Provider must post this data on OASIS as soon as practical after the end of each month, but no later than when it sends invoices to transmission customers for redispatch-related services.

Subsection (k) of 18 CFR 37.6 requires the Transmission Provider to post on OASIS historical one-minute and ten-minute area control error data for the most recent calendar year, and update this posting once per year.

Transmission Providers must make tariff filings referencing the WEQ Version 003.2 standards and stating that they will implement their tariff in accordance with the requirements of the WEQ Version 003.2 standards. Transmission Providers currently collect and post information on various systems such as OASIS currently in use by the industry. Without these standards, the same transactions would occur. However, the details regarding each transaction would vary from utility to utility and would thus hinder standardization.

General. The substance of the reporting requirements (described above) is incorporated by reference into FERC’s regulations at 18 CFR 38 (making the standards mandatory). However, the standards themselves are copyrighted by NAESB. Links to the NAESB submittals in the dockets are included under Supplementary Documents.

3. DESCRIBE ANY CONSIDERATION OF THE USE OF IMPROVED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE THE BURDEN AND TECHNICAL OR LEGAL OBSTACLES TO REDUCING BURDEN

FERC has made no significant changes in information technology use for complying with the FERC-717 for the electronic filing of tariffs. Applicable entities also continue to use OASIS (under the FERC-717 collection), providing the public online access to transmission service information.

4. DESCRIBE EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY DUPLICATION AND SHOW SPECIFICALLY WHY ANY SIMILAR INFORMATION ALREADY AVAILABLE CANNOT BE USED OR MODIFIED FOR USE FOR THE PURPOSE(S) DESCRIBED IN INSTRUCTION NO. 2

FERC periodically reviews rules and data requirements in conjunction with OMB clearance expiration dates. This process includes a review of FERC's regulations and data requirements to identify duplication. The information to be submitted, generated, kept, or posted, pursuant to this Final Rule is not readily available from other sources and, therefore, no duplicate information is available that would serve as a substitute for this information and for performing oversight and review responsibilities under applicable legislation (e.g. FPA, Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct)).

5. METHODS USED TO MINIMIZE THE BURDEN IN COLLECTION OF INFORMATION INVOLVING SMALL ENTITIES

FERC estimates that these requirements apply to 26⁷ small public utilities. The Commission does consider waivers for small entities, which serves as an option for small entities to reduce their burden. The Commission grants these waivers on a case-by-case basis.

6. CONSEQUENCE TO FEDERAL PROGRAM IF COLLECTION WERE CONDUCTED LESS FREQUENTLY

The Commission promotes an open transmission system through its policies and regulations. The NAESB WEQ Version 003.2 standards were developed and vetted through an industry consensus process. If the information collection components of the standards were conducted less frequently, then the standards would not fully achieve their purpose of promoting efficiency in the wholesale electric industry. Further, anything different from the standards under consideration here would not be in accordance with what the industry has already vetted and approved in an open consensus building process through NAESB.

7. EXPLAIN ANY SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO THE INFORMATION COLLECTION

There are no special circumstances.

8. DESCRIBE EFFORTS TO CONSULT OUTSIDE THE AGENCY: SUMMARIZE PUBLIC COMMENTS AND THE AGENCY’S RESPONSE

As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Commission published a notice of this information collection request in the Federal Register on October 13, 2023 (88 FR 70967). No comments were received during the 60-day comment period. The Commission published the 30-day notice on December 21, 2023 (88 FR 88383).

9. EXPLAIN ANY PAYMENT OR GIFTS TO RESPONDENTS

There are no payments or gifts to respondents for these collections.

10. DESCRIBE ANY ASSURANCE OF CONFIDENTIALITY PROVIDED TO RESPONDENTS

Any data filed are public information and, therefore, not confidential. However, a company may request confidential treatment of some or all parts of the information requirement under the FERC regulations at 18 CFR 388.112. The Commission will review each request for confidential treatment on a case-by-case basis.

11. PROVIDE ADDITIONAL JUSTIFICATION FOR ANY QUESTIONS OF A SENSITIVE NATURE, SUCH AS SEXUAL BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES, RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, AND OTHER MATTERS THAT ARE COMMONLY CONSIDERED PRIVATE.

There are no questions of a sensitive nature in the reporting requirements.

12. ESTIMATED BURDEN OF COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

The previous information collection request (ICR Reference No. 202002-1902-006) in the year 2020 was approved by OMB with a one-time burden that was expected to be completed in Year One. As averaged over a three-year period, the annual responses were estimated as 165 annually, 10 hours per response, and total hours of 1,650 hours. These burdens are not included in this information collection request because all respondents have complied with that one-time burden. The removal of those burdens constitutes a program change.

The estimated annual number of responses for the ongoing information collection activity are adjusted in this information collection request from 162 to 216, an increase of 54 responses. Based on a review of the information collection since our last submission, we have determined this change in number of responses is due to changes in the regulated industry.

The current burden estimates are shown in the following table.

Burden Estimates for FERC-717, Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities

Information Collection Requirement	No. of Respondents (1)	Annual No. of Responses per Respondent (2)	Total No. of Responses (1)*(2)=(3)	Average Burden Hours & Cost Per Response8 (4)	Total Annual Burden Hours & Total Annual Cost (3)*(4)=(5)
Open Access Same-Time Information (OASIS)	216	1	216	30 hrs.; $2,880	6,480 hrs.; $622,080

13. ESTIMATE OF THE TOTAL ANNUAL COST BURDEN TO RESPONDENTS

There are no non-labor costs currently associated with the either the FERC-717.

All of the costs are associated with labor and are shown in Questions #12 and 15.

14. ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The Commission bases its estimate of the ‘Analysis and Processing of filings’ cost to the Federal Government on salaries and benefits for professional and clerical support. This estimated cost represents staff analysis, decision making, and review of any actual filings made in response to the Final Rule.

The PRA Administrative Cost is a Federal Cost associated with preparing, issuing, and submitting materials necessary to comply with the PRA for rulemakings, orders, or any other vehicle used to create, modify, extend, or discontinue an information collection. This average annual cost includes requests for extensions, all associated rulemakings and orders, other changes to the collection, and associated publications in the Federal Register. This estimate is updated annually.

	Number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees (FTEs)	Estimated Annual Federal Cost9
FERC-717, Analysis and Processing of filings	0.5	$99,933.50
PRA Administrative Cost (for FERC-717)		$8,286
FERC Total		$108,219.50

15. REASONS FOR CHANGES IN BURDEN INCLUDING THE NEED FOR ANY INCREASE

The previous information collection request (ICR Reference No. 202002-1902-006) in the year 2020 was approved by OMB with a one-time burden that was expected to be completed in Year One. As averaged over a three-year period, the annual responses were estimated as 165 annually, 10 hours per response, and total hours of 1,650 hours. These burdens are not included in this information collection request because all respondents have complied with that one-time burden. The removal of those burdens constitutes a program change.

The estimated annual number of responses for the ongoing information collection activity are adjusted in this information collection request from 162 to 216, an increase of 54 responses. Based on a review of the information collection since our last submission, we have determined this change in number of responses is due to changes in the regulated industry.

The net changes in the estimated annual burdens are 111 fewer responses and 30 fewer burden hours.

FERC-717	Total Request	Previously Approved	Change due to Adjustment in Estimate	Change Due to Agency Discretion
Annual Number of Responses	216 responses	327 responses	+54 responses	­165 responses
Annual Time Burden (Hr.)	6,480 hours	6,510 hours	+1,620 hours	­1,650 hours
Annual Cost Burden ($)	0	0	0	0

16. TIME SCHEDULE FOR PUBLICATION OF DATA

FERC does not publish any data associated with these collections.

17. DISPLAY OF EXPIRATION DATE

The expiration date is displayed in a table posted at https://www.ferc.gov/media/information-collections.

18. EXCEPTIONS TO THE CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

The data collected for the reporting requirements are not used for statistical purposes.

1 Under 18 CFR 37.3(a), a “Transmission Provider” is any public utility that owns, operates, or controls facilities used for the transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce.

2 Under 18 CFR 37.3(b), a “Transmission Customer” is any eligible customer (or its designated agent) that can or does execute a transmission service agreement or can or does receive transmission service.

3 16 U.S.C. 824d.

4 Under 18 CFR 37.3(c), a “Responsible Party” is a Transmission Provider or an agent to whom the Transmission Provider has delegated the responsibility of meeting any of the requirements of 18 CFR Part 37.

5 Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities, Order No. 676-H, 79 FR 56,939 (Oct. 24, 2014), 148 FERC ¶ 61,205, at P 77 (2014); Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities, Order No. 676-E, 74 FR 63,288 (Dec. 3, 2009), 129 FERC ¶ 61,162 (2009). Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities, Order No. 676-E, 74 FR 63,288 (Dec. 3, 2009), 129 FERC ¶ 61,162 (2009). This order also incorporated revisions made in response to Order Nos. 890, 890-A, and 890-B. See Preventing Undue Discrimination and Preference in Transmission Service, Order No. 890, 118 FERC ¶ 61,119, order on reh’g, Order No. 890-A, 121 FERC ¶ 61,297 (2007), order on reh’g, Order No. 890-B, 123 FERC ¶ 61,299 (2008), order on reh’g, Order No. 890-C, 126 FERC ¶ 61,228, order on clarification, Order No. 890-D, 129 FERC ¶ 61,126 (2009).

6 The Commission established the pro forma open access transmission tariff in 1996 as a remedy to prevent undue discrimination. See Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non-discriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities; Recovery of Stranded Costs by Public Utilities and Transmitting Utilities, Order No. 888, 61 Fed. Reg. 21,540 (May 10, 1996)

7 This figure constitutes approximately 12 percent of the 216 affected entities.

8 The Commission staff thinks that the average respondent for this collection is similarly situated to the Commission, in terms of salary plus benefits. Based upon FERC’s FY 2022 annual average of $199,867 (for salary plus benefits), and the average hourly cost is $96/hour.

9 The figure for analysis and processing is based on FERC’s 2020 FTE average annual salary plus benefits of $172,329.

8